Dinner @ Taste of Thailand, Yishun

20th June 2011, Written by YewAnn.What began as a moose meet up at Ah Loy Thai (Bugis) somehow ended up as a dinner at Taste of Thailand, which is located all the way in Yishun. This is not cool for me at all, considering that I stay all the way in the East.

Situated a few of bus stops away from North Point, Taste of Thailand is a tze char stall in a seemingly deserted Coffee shop with no other stalls open when we arrived in the evening. Despite the inconvenient location and it being the only stall still in operation, the entire coffee shop was full. Many customers (including us) had to wait outside the coffee shop to get seated. It was almost like queuing up for consultation in a Polyclinic on a monday morning. According to Vin, who has been to the place several times, the place is often crowded, but today's queue was especially longer as it was Fathers' Day.

We ordered Pineapple Fried Rice (5.00 SGD, M), as opposed to normal white rice. While I expected it to come with prawns, squid, eggs and slices of chicken, the rice was served with only pineapple cubes and lots of meat floss. The rice was plain, but nonetheless, fragrant and actually tasted pretty good with the generous serving of meat floss. Not recommended to be eaten without other dishes though.

Taste of Thailand's Tom Yum Soup (4.00 SGD, S) was definitely one of the highlights for me. Vin and I ordered for the smaller serving as Xin Li does not particularly like Tom Yum. Not only was the blend of sweet, sour and spicy that most people look out for in the soup right, I could also distinctively taste the fresh seafood in the soup. I particularly like the texture of the squid in the soup as well. Definitely a must try, but be prepared to drink the soup fast, as it does not taste as good when it's cold.

Being health conscious, we ordered Baby Kai Lan in Oyster Sauce (6.00 SGD, M). It was alright for me. Vin and Xinli though the Kai Lan was nice and crisp.

What can I say? Their Deep Fried Calamari completely stole the show tonight. This was CRAZY good. The batter was crunchy and tasty, while the squid underneath was soft, fresh and chewy, but not rubbery. The lemongrass sauce was perfect for the calamari. Thank God Vin ordered a larger serving for us. I could have eaten this alone as a main course. And as Vin says, this certainly makes it worth while for customers to dine here again.

We also ordered Honey Glazed Chicken (6.00 SGD, S), which tasted pretty normal to me, like something your regular tze char stall would serve you. Xinli thought it was average and not worth trying.

We spent exactly $30 in total, excluding the Plum Juice which we bought. The restaurant charges neither GST nor service charge. Given a choice, I would definitely come back again for its awesome Tom Yum Soup and Calamari, despite the crowd. However, it serves only a limited variety of Thai cuisine, as many well known Thai dishes such as Green Curry, Mango Sticky Rice and Phad Thai are not included in the menu.